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Compliance

Management Services Organization (MSO)

Also called MSO structure

Definition

A corporate structure that separates the business entity from the professional entity practising medicine, used to comply with corporate practice of medicine rules.

Many states prohibit non-physicians from owning entities that practise medicine. An MSO structure resolves this by separating a professional corporation, owned by licensed clinicians and responsible for clinical care, from a management company that provides everything else.

The management company supplies technology, marketing, administration and non-clinical staffing under a services agreement. Clinical decisions remain entirely with the professional entity.

The structure has to be genuine rather than cosmetic. Agreements that let the management company direct clinical judgment defeat the purpose and create the exposure they were meant to avoid.

Why it matters

Corporate practice of medicine violations carry real regulatory consequences. This is structural work to get right at formation, not something to retrofit after launch.

FAQ

Management Services Organization (MSO), in practice

If you are not a licensed clinician and you intend to operate in states with corporate practice of medicine restrictions, then in practice yes. PharmaBro provides MSO structuring guidance drafted for your ownership as part of onboarding.